Data-Driven Daoist

It was about as tall as Yu Han and wide enough to block the gate. Under the moonlight, it took on a slightly paler orange hue.

“Last time it was larger, right?” Yu Han said. He cautiously approached it. The boulder was about the height of his torso now. Last time, it had loomed far larger, like a mini-truck. “The colour is a bit strange too.”

“It’s come to eat you,” Huang Niuniu said, clutching his robes with a death grip, her feet planted on the ground. Yu Han couldn’t move.

“Did you put all of your Primordial Qi into strength or something?”

A click came from the boulder. It stood, shaking off the dirt, and two club-like eye stalks extended from sockets on top of its carapace. They were obsidian black, with a narrow orange slit in the middle.

Kind of like the Eye of Sauron, but with black where the orange was, and orange where the black was?

“Are you an evil, soul-consuming warlock who’s come to steal a ring from us?” Yu Han asked.

The crab lurched forward, its eight legs snapping into motion.

“It’s going to eat us, run!” Huang Niuniu dragged Yu Han back with all her might. But the crab was faster. It circled around them and blocked their path.

“Niu’er, relax. I told you it keeps appearing in my dream, right?” Yu Han stepped on her foot. “Ouch.”

He patted her head. She let go, then hid behind him.

“Unsheath your halberd just in case,” she whispered.

The crab bobbed up and down. One of its eyes extended a bit more than the other, as if to look behind Yu Han. Huang Niuniu squealed and hid her face. The other eye stalk rotated a full 360 degrees on its axis, clockwise, then counter-clockwise. It came up to Yu Han and wiggled its body.

Yu Han gave it a good pat. The spikes retracted seamlessly back into their slots where his hand made contact.

“Hehe, robocrab.”

It did a little crab-dance under Yu Han’s pats.

“C-Can I do it?” Huang Niuniu asked.

This was a girl who thought a worm was cute after being initially afraid of it. How could she possibly resist the urge?

A few minutes later, she was draped on top of the creature like a bubble blanket, patting all over its body. It was a bit creepy, honestly.

“I’m never eating crab soup again!” Huang Niuniu said, her voice euphoric. “Okay, maybe not in the next week!”

The crab’s eye stalks retreated into their sockets, then one peeked out. It looked at Huang Niuniu, then at Yu Han. It shook its larger claw, and a leather parchment dropped. Yu Han picked it up. 𝑅αΝÖＢΕș

He’d seen this many times in his dreams. The parchment was full of boxy letters, crammed together as if the author didn’t have anything else to write on.

It was definitely not Yellow Tongue common. Nor was it the Imperial Script Huang Niuniu was teaching him.

The girl in question finally extracted herself from the creature and took the paper from him. She stared at it. The moonlight was bright, so it wasn’t too hard to see.

A few minutes passed. Yu Han played with the crab, but one of its eye stalks was always pointed in Huang Niuniu’s direction.

Finally, clouds covered the moon. Huang Niuniu gave the parchment back.

“I don’t know what it says,” she whimpered. “Sorry.”

The crab seemed to deflate. No, it actually deflated. It was now the size of a head. Mysteriously, the parchment got smaller alongside it.

Definitely a treasure, Yu Han thought. How come no one’s tried to steal it? It wasn’t that Yu Han wanted to. But the Sect had other nice characters like Gong Muhua and Sima Yan.

The crab scuttled backwards into Yu Han’s yard. It dug a hole barely as wide as its carapace, then slotted itself in. Its spikes, legs, and eye stalks all retracted into its body. The claws remained, and it used them like shovels to throw dirt on top of itself. After the camouflage was complete, the claws also retracted. What was left now was an orangish-brown boulder covered in dirt.

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“Yeah, boulders aren’t orange, buddy,” Yu Han said. “Your carapace isn’t even round, but more boxy.”

“Shush, it’s sleeping.”

“There’s a spirit crab in my front yard, Niu’er, I get to—”

“Shush!” She covered his mouth with her palm. Her eyes stared into his, green, sparkling. A hint of neon light illuminated her irises.

It was beautiful.

“Talk tomorrow,” Huang Niuniu said. She removed her hands, then took three steps back. Suddenly, she covered her face with her palms and ran off.

“Why are you the one getting embarrassed?” Yu Han shouted, his face heating.

“Shush!” she yelled back.

He watched her silhouette disappear into her hut. She’d only tripped once on the way. He entered the yard and stared at the crab-boulder for a while, then sighed.

No use thinking too much. I don’t mind, either way.

He got out of his robes and took out a clean pair. They usually used the magical cleaning compartments at the Night Alchemist’s Yard as their laundry machines. The cleaned robes felt like a sunshine hug. He drifted off quickly.

In his Deep Sleep, he waited a while, but the crab didn’t appear.

That’s fine too.

Yu Han brought up a status menu.

Traits:

[Existential Anchor]

Grade: Mortal Level 1

True Qi: Requirements Not Satisfied

[Deep Writhing Clam Bloodline]

Grade: Mortal Level 10

True Qi: 0 / 1100

[Qi Affinity]

Grade: Mortal Level 7

True Qi: 2 / 800

Qi Affinity hadn’t increased. No clue on how to grind Deep Writhing Clam Bloodline either. His eyes were drawn to the most mysterious trait he had.

“Existential Anchor. Are you the reason why Fang Zhao’s ring had no effect on me?” Yu Han asked. No one was there to answer his doubts.

It was the only thing he could think of. Huang Niuniu, Li Yao, and Fang Zhao were seemingly mind-controlled when Yu Han had questioned the existence of the ring. Yet Yu Han hadn’t felt a thing.

Did this Trait literally anchor his existence, so to speak? Maybe he got this trait because of his Transmigration. Either the very event granted it, or that green meteor that blasted him into this world.

He brought the screen down, then checked his profile.

Name: Yu Han (Johan)

Level: 1

True Qi: 80 (+1) / 200

Pure Qi: 38 (-1) / 200

Primordial Qi: 0

Lifeforce: 383 (+32) / 768

He’d already assimilated 1 Pure Qi somehow. Was it the breathing technique? He usually tried to keep the breathing according to the Cultivation Art whilst he trained his Martial Art. He’d had little success as of yet, but he was getting better.

His Lifeforce had recovered quite a bit too, probably because of the elixir he had at the Night Alchemist’s Yard.

It’s nothing compared to the Deep Sea’s Vitality’s Spite, though. Father, we had a recipe that was even better than magical elixirs! For some strange reason, he felt pride bubbling up. This was a legacy left behind by his family, the Sect having nothing to do with it. The only reason he could benefit from it now was because he tried to live up to his—Johan’s—dad’s expectations. Huang Niuniu appreciated their connection and nurtured it back.

Part of him, Johan, wanted to scoff. It was too early to decide. He wasn’t against giving it a chance, though. At the end of his previous life, he’d felt a bone-deep loneliness.

A mirage of her appeared in the dreamscape. Her shoulder-length black hair. Plain face. Glowing green irises.

Yu Han wiped it away in a panic.

Click.

“What the fuck?”

It was the crab. It was the same football size as it had been in the yard. Yu Han squatted beside it.

“Remember me?”

It cocked its body left, tilting its eye stalks right, then took out the parchment and held it to Yu Han.

Yu Han slumped. “Sorry, buddy, don’t know.”

The crab collapsed, its legs retreating into its body. It just lay there for a while. A few pearls popped into existence around it.

“What are these?” Yu Han held a pearl to its drooping eyes, and it became alert. It extended its legs again, then circled Yu Han while clicking its claws.

After a while, Yu Han figured it didn’t know.

“They don’t appear in real life. Only in this Dreamscape.” Yu Han went to the pile of pearls and picked up a blue one. “It turns blue after a few days. Look, this one has a mirage of us playing fetch.”

The crab held the blue pearl in front of its eyes. It then made a very obvious motion of shrugging.

“No idea, huh? Maybe you did know once. You just forgot?”

Crab. Memory. Unsafe Memory.

“There was a programming language back home called Rust. I learnt it for a while. They called us Rustaceans, and our mascot was an orange crab thing called Ferris.”

Click.

“Never mind,” Yu Han said. Many projects he’d greenlit at Nexus Assurance Auditors used it.

“Aren’t you going back now?” Yu Han asked the crab. It would usually make a hole in his Dreamscape and go into that tunnel.

The crab started playing with the pile of blue pearls.

“Fine, then.” Yu Han took some distance. He echoed their fight, trying to find new observations. Every minute piece of data mattered. Enough data could string together into information, and then into knowledge.

If they had stumbled upon the horde of Filth Eating Ghouls without knowing about Fang Zhao’s ring, the fact that the shrines could protect them, or that the ghouls were sensitive to sound and light, they might not have gotten away with such minor injuries.

Luck played a role in their success. But data did too. These constant revisions of his battles, and the day’s events, were like a foundation for his future safety.

To Yu Han, it was no less important than cultivation.

“Speaking of which…” Yu Han had an idea.

He closed his eyes and breathed in. One breath. Five. Fifty.

He inhaled and exhaled according to the Calm Before the Storm Breathing Technique. He’d never tried doing it in Deep Sleep for some reason. In waking times, he hated sitting still doing nothing but meditation. That was why he tried to incorporate it into his Martial Arts practice—

A click broke him out of his meditation.

“What the fu—”

He fell. He’d been levitating halfway up the Dreamscape. Before he could echo in his bed to break the fall, he collapsed onto the shell-like dreamscape floor.

“Ouch.”

He bounced, falling flat on his back.

The crab clicked again. Yu Han sat up and stared. It stood in front of a human-sized hole. It clicked its larger pincer, then beckoned Yu Han. Its other pincer held the blue pearl.

“You…” Yu Han gulped. “You want me to go with you?”